


Waiting It Out

by airplanesmuke



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bora Bora, M/M, cal and ash are the best support system, fake girlfriend, its not arzaylea lol, sad!Luke, sad!Michael
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 18:29:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7585345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/airplanesmuke/pseuds/airplanesmuke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Michael’s favorite part of the day changed from waking up next to Luke to hearing the front door open at the end of the day when Luke would come home”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waiting It Out

**Author's Note:**

> lol this was supposed to be written right after SLFL started but I procrastinated rip... ENJOY :)

There were a lot of things Michael loved about being Luke’s boyfriend. He was allowed to pull Luke into a cuddle at any time; he was the one who got to wake up to hazy blue eyes and a dopey grin every morning; and, he was the only one who could hear the squeaks of excitement whenever Michael showered his face with kisses. But that being said, there were a few things that Michael hated about being Luke’s boyfriend- and all of them had to deal with his position of frontman in the band. 

Over the years, Michael had seen the stress and pressure pile up, forcing Luke to grow up way faster than he should’ve. Sure Calum and Ashton had also struggled with the amounted stress, and Michael himself had had some bad days, but it always seem to hit Luke the hardest. 

Michael remembers when he and Luke first came out together to Calum and Ashton, who looked at each other and laughed- apparently he and Luke hadn’t been as quiet or secretive as they thought they were. Their families had a similar reaction, and the comforting smiles and supportive words led them to believe that telling their management was a good choice.

Big mistake. 

To say they were less than pleased would be an understatement, but last thing Michael and Luke had expected was for Modest! to bring a fake girlfriend for Luke in the following week. Michael remembers the blonde breaking down during the meeting when they mentioned the new girl. It had been a rough week in general, and Michael just wanted to keep himself together for Luke’s sake. The last thing Luke needed was to add a sad Michael to his already overloaded plate. That didn’t, however, stop Michael from sneaking away to the bathroom in their shared apartment that night, turning the shower on in attempt to drown out his cries.

Of course, when Calum and Ashton found out they were furious, but there was nothing they could do- there was nothing anyone could do. After Luke had signed another contract, his and Michael’s relationship completely changed. Instead of spending their free days huddled up in their bed playing video games or exploring LA, Luke found himself spending more time in front of clubs getting photographed while Michael moped around in the band’s apartment waiting for his boyfriend to come home.

Weekly appearances between Luke and the girl slowly became daily, whether it be a simple snapchat and instagram post or getting lunch at a cafe downtown. But at the end of every day, Luke would come home, strip down to his boxers and climb into bed behind Michael. He would nuzzle his face into his boyfriend’s neck and mumble apologies to which Michael would always shake his head at to say “It’s not your fault. I get it”. 

Michael’s favorite part of the day changed from waking up next to Luke to hearing the front door open at the end of the day when Luke would come home. Luke had always come home at a reasonable time or at least texted Michael that he was going to stay somewhere else; he knew how anxious the redhead could get. But tonight was different. 

Michael was just turning off his lights at 1:13 AM and there had been nothing from Luke. The eldest had texted him a few hours ago but got no response. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he heard the front door open. He sat up and waited for a few seconds, but groaned and lay back down when he heard Calum and Ashton’s distinctive drunk laughs. 

The apartment fell silent a few minutes later and Michael felt so alone. He was so used to having Luke next to him every night that he didn’t think he would be able to sleep. Luke’s lack of response to his messages earlier worried him, knowing how Luke was usually glued to his phone texting Michael when he had to go out on a date with the girl. 

The queen sized bed felt huge without having someone to share it with, so Michael just curled in on himself further and pulled the big duvet tighter around himself. It was the first time in a long time that he was forced to fall asleep alone. 

Michael woke up the next morning to the sound of laughter and Green Day’s first album. He turned over to find the other side of the bed still empty and sighed. Where could Luke have been? The band had to go in to record later in the day so he knew he would see Luke then, but he was still worried. Michael sighed and threw the cover off to the side. In the bathroom he looked at himself in the mirror; his hair was messy and he still looked tired. He washed his face and brushed his teeth before leaving his room and walking towards the noise. 

Calum and Ashton were eating breakfast in the kitchen when Michael walked in. Calum looked up and gave his best friend a small smile before digging back into his eggs. The coffee mugs filled to the brim and bottles of tylenol and advil suggested to Michael that the two had had quite the night. 

“Good night?” Michael asked, nodding his head towards the pain relievers.

“Yeah, pretty good. Would’ve been better if you were with us,” Ashton grumbled, mouth half-full of toast, to which Michael laughed and shook his head.

“You guys know it’s-” he was interrupted by the front door opening. A few seconds later, Luke walked through the threshold into the kitchen, blonde hair flat on his head and eyes looking exhausted. 

The redhead let out a small grunt of approval when Luke wrapped his arms around Michael’s back and nuzzled his face into Michael’s neck. “Missed you last night,” Luke mumbled, rubbing his face alongside his boyfriend’s jaw.

Michael pulled back when the prickly hairs on Luke’s face scratched him, to which Luke whined unhappily and tried to latch himself back onto Michael, but the older boy was able to fend him off and turn around. He crossed his arms and looked at Luke, “Where were you last night?"

“Had to be seen going into a hotel with her,” Luke explained. “Paps wouldn’t leave so I stayed the night. My phone died and neither of us had a charger,” Michael nodded, because what else was there to do? 

“Luke,” Ashton said from the table. “Mate you look knocked out. Go get some rest before recording, we’re leaving at 2,” 

The blonde nodded easily and glanced back at Michael in a hopeful way, silently asking if the older boy would go back to bed with him. “You go,” Michael said, nudging Luke towards the staircase with a soft smile. “I’m gonna eat something, but then I’ll come up,” 

When Luke was out of sight, Michael groaned audibly and ran his hands through his already messy hair. 

“You good?” Calum asked him. He got up from the table with his empty plate and walked towards Michael with a worried look. 

“Fine,” Michael muttered. Calum took Michael’s tone as a sign to leave him alone, but it wasn’t long until the older boy spoke up again. “It’s just he’s always home at night, and he, I don’t know, he just didn’t come home last night and didn’t tell anyone,” 

Calum put his dishes in the dishwasher and turned back to Michael. “His phone died Mike, you can’t be upset with him for that,” 

“I’m not upset at him!” Michael raised his voice, but lowered it when he saw Calum’s eyebrows raise. “I’m just mad at the situation, I don’t know. It’s just getting to be too much, we should never have told anyone,”

It was quiet for a moment. Calum was taking in Michael’s confession and Michael didn’t know what else to say. “Go talk to him,” the Maori boy finally said. “You’ve got a lot pent up and as much as Ash and I wanna help, this is between you and Luke,”

Michael found himself nodding and walking back up to his room, still with an empty stomach, to Luke. The bed was empty, but the light in the shower was on so Michael just got back into bed. It was a few minutes before the water cut off in the bathroom and Luke emerged with a towel wrapped around his hips. He didn’t even notice Michael in bed and whistled to himself quietly as he grabbed a pair of boxers and sweatpants. 

“Hi,” Michael said, startling Luke. The blonde put a hand to his heart and shook his head. “Christ, you can’t just do that,” he said with a smile to let Michael know he wasn’t actually upset. 

The older boy sat up in bed and pulled the covers up to his nose as he watched Luke. Luke, of course, noticed and smirked at him. “911,” he joked, holding his hand up to his ear to mimic a cell phone, “There’s a man in my bed creeping on me,”

Michael threw a pillow at him and Luke let out a loud yelp. “Ok, ok, police he’s getting violent!” he said into his “phone” and Michael giggled at him. This was all so  _ Luke  _ and Michael loved it so much.

“Just come to bed you goon,” he said, lowering the covers from his face and throwing it back so Luke could come in. Luke hung up his towel and crawled into the bed. Michael groaned as Luke put his head on Michael’s chest, dampening his black Metallica shirt.

“Luke,” Michael started. 

“You love it baby,” Luke responded, sounding teasing and completely unapologetic. He snuggled in closer to Michael, wrapping his arm around his boyfriend’s middle and tangling their legs together. No matter how big Luke got, he would always let Michael hold him, and Michael loved him for that. 

Michael remembered Calum’s suggestion that the two talked and he tensed up, unfortunately for him it didn’t go unnoticed to Luke. 

“Mikey?” Luke asked softly, turning his head to look up at the redhead. “Are you okay?”

“You just worried me last night Lu,” Michael started, running his fingers through the small curls at the back of Luke’s neck. “And all this hiding and fake girlfriend stuff is just getting to me. I want to be able to hold your hand in public without management getting on our asses.” 

Luke hugged Michael impossibly tighter and sighed. “I know babe, I’m sorry,” He shushed Michael when he tried to interrupt. “I’m sorry for worrying you and putting you through this, I know it’s not fair. It’ll all be over soon I promise, and when it does end I’m gonna take you out and show my handsome boyfriend off to everyone,” 

“I’m gonna hold you to that” Michael relaxed. He kissed the top of Luke’s head and leaned over to turn off the light on his bedside table, remembering to turn the alarm on his phone on just in case he fell asleep too. “I’m not mad at you, just go to sleep. I’ll wake you up for recording,”

“M’kay Mikey,” Luke said sleepily. “Love you”

“Love you too Luke. Everything’s gonna be okay,” he responded, and for once he felt like maybe everything would work out.

Michael didn’t even realize that he had also fallen asleep until he felt a strong hand shake his shoulder and a familiar voice calling his name.

“Mike? We gotta go soon,” Ashton’s smooth voice said. He had come in to see the two impossibly close laying in bed, and it only made him sad. He hated that they couldn’t just be together; he knew how upset this whole thing made both of them, but since Luke was out most of the time now he had to see Michael moping and it broke his heart. Anyone with two eyes and a brain could see the obvious connection between the two and what management was doing wasn’t fair. 

“What Ash?” Michael mumbled quietly, tightening his grip around the blonde in his arms. Ashton almost gave in right then and walked out the door, thinking of an excuse as to why only the rhythmic section of the band went to record, but he shook off that thought and repeated himself. 

“C’mon we just gotta record a few demos then you guys can come back here and sleep,” he pleaded. Michael slowly opened his eyes pulled himself up in a sitting position against the headboard. Luke whined at the sudden movement and rolled over on top of Michael.

“I’ll get him up,” Michael said. “We’ll be down in 10,” Ashton nodded and patted Michael’s shoulder before leaving the room and closing the door behind him. The redhead refocused his attention on the lump of blonde on top of him and chuckled softly. He placed his arms under Luke’s and pulled him up so he was practically sitting in Michael’s lap face-to-face. Michael placed soft kisses all across Luke’s face and rubbed small circles on his back. 

Luke giggled and shoved his face into Michael’s neck. “C’mon babe you gotta wake up now,” Michael said. He was always with gentle with Luke, especially when waking him up. He had learned the hard way when they started dating that there was a right and a wrong way to wake him up.

The younger boy pulled back and rested his forehead on Michael’s and gave him a slow, yet lingering kiss. “Thanks for napping with me,” he said when he finally pulled back. “Couldn’t sleep last night without you,” 

The two heard a shout of “We’re gonna be late!” from downstairs and they quickly kicked off the covers and got out of bed. As horrible as Luke could be in the morning, there was nothing worse than Ashton when he got antsy about timing. Michael tied his converse and threw Luke a random t-shirt before grabbing his hand and walking downstairs. 

Calum met them at the bottom of the staircase with two water bottles. “Good sleep?” he asked. The question was directed at Luke, but Michael knew that he was really trying to figure out if he had talked to Luke yet. The blonde squeezed his hand and nodded. “Ash in the car?” 

“Yeah,” Calum nodded and led the way out to the driveway. Luke dropped Michael’s hand just in case there were any paps or fans waiting outside; Michael thought he’d be used to it by now, but every time it happened he felt his heart fall to the bottom of his stomach. Luke knew, of course, and offered him an apologetic smile, but that didn’t do much to help Michael.

Luke’s hand found its way back into Michael’s as soon as the car door closed with a soft, “Sorry Mikey,” that Michael shook off and smiled at Luke. It wasn’t a long drive to the recording studio and it wasn’t long before Michael had a guitar in his hand and felt at ease. 

Music was his escape from everything; it had been since he heard the chords of Green Day’s Basket Case back in secondary school. He hadn’t been the most social person, but he found comfort in the guitar and used it as an outlet to block out all the stress of his daily school life and his friends and family. Looking back now at the all horrendous hair and awful stage presence of their first few shows, Michael could never have imagined that they would be where they are now. It still felt like a dream that he had never woken up from, and if that were true then he’d do anything he could to keep himself from waking up. 

John Feldmann eventually came into the studio and they actually started working. It had been a productive day; Ashton and Calum had finished writing another song for their upcoming sophomore album; Luke had managed to record his vocals for three more songs; and Michael had recorded his vocals and riffs for each of the songs Luke had worked on. Not only were they getting work done, but it was fun. Michael treasured the time they had in the studio for it was the only time when he could truly be himself without having to worry about anything else but music.

Time always passed by too quickly in the studio. Two o’clock suddenly turned into 8 o’clock and that was when Michael and Luke hit another road bump in their already tainted relationship. Michael was in the middle of recording his vocals for “Castaway” when he saw Luke get a phone call in the other room. He tried to not let it get to him and finish his solo, but the way Luke was angrily pacing the floor worried him. When he hung up, Luke looked up at Michael to see him already looking back at him and frowned. 

“You’re good Mike,’ John said from outside the recording booth, so Michael took off his headset and walked out. Everyone in the recording studio knew about Michael and Luke, so Michael didn’t hesitate to walk up to Luke and sit next to him on the couch.

“What was that about babe?” he asked softly.

Luke shrugged. “It was management,” and Michael tensed up next to him.  _ Did someone see them?  _ “I have to go out again with her tonight,” Michael deflated, he was happy that no one saw them, but hated that Luke had to leave him once again.

“O-oh,” Michael said, surprising both himself and Luke when his voice cracked. Feldmann and the rest of the band had left the room at his point to give the two privacy. Michael cleared his throat, “When are you leaving?”

“Now,” Luke said. “There’s a car outside already,” Michael peered out the window to see that there was a black SUV just outside the building, ready to take Luke away from Michael once again. 

“I’ll see you tonight?” he asked weakly and Luke immediately nodded. “Of course babe. I’ll be home before you know it,” 

Luke stood up and pulled Michael with him. He kissed him gently and pulled him into a hug. “I love you,” to which the redhead smiled softly. Those three words always made him feel better. “I love you too,” he responded before giving Luke one last kiss and letting him go. 

Luke didn’t come home that night either. 

\---

It had been a month since that night and Michael was sick of everything. He was sick of Luke coming home in the middle of the night (if he even came home at all), and he was sick of constantly being ditched and given half-assed apologies. He wasn’t an idiot; he knew that management hadn’t been forcing him to go out every night, he was going out on his own. The (now) black haired boy wanted to talk to Luke about it, but even he couldn’t stay awake waiting for Luke, and when he woke up with the blonde holding him from behind, he forgot why he was even mad. 

Luke had this kind of effect on him and Michael hated it. He was pretty sure that if the blonde broke his favorite guitar, he would probably just smile and thank him-that worried him. With the way their relationship was going, now was not the time to realize how attached he was to the blonde.

The only thing that was keeping Michael from losing it completely was the fact that after they finished recording this album they had a vacation planned-just the four of them. This album was important to Michael, well it was important to all of them, but Michael felt an immense amount of pressure to make it better than great, it needed to be amazing. Writing and recording took up most of his days, and he was thankful that he didn’t have a lot of time to think about Luke and the girl. 

It was late on a Tuesday night when the album was finished. The last solo and riff had been recorded and edited when the four boys collapsed onto the leather couch in the studio. Feldmann laughed at them and handed each of them a cold beer from the fridge. 

“Congrats lads, another album in the books!” Feldmann cheered, clinking his beer with Calum and Ashton. Michael wanted to join in on the celebration, he really did, but he was exhausted and just wanted to curl up into bed with Luke and sleep. They were leaving for their vacation the next day and Michael couldn’t be more excited. Two weeks with no girlfriend, no fans, no paparazzi- just him and his best friends.

The rest of the night flew by at the studio, and it was around 3 in the morning when the boys were all piling into the black SUV to go back to their apartment. Luke had nuzzled his way into Michael’s lap and was playing some game on his iPhone while Calum and Ashton were talking quietly in the front seat. 

“Hey guys,” Ashton said back to Michael and Luke. “Would you be mad if I invited Bry on our trip? I’m not gonna see her after when we’re on tour, but if you guys want it to just be us then I’ll tell her no,”

Michael’s face fell. He liked Bryana, she was sweet and perfect for Ashton, but this was a  _ band  _ trip and the last time he checked, she wasn’t in the band. He knew how much she meant to Ashton, so he nodded his head and faked a smile. “Go for it man, you guys getting serious?” 

He could still see Ashton’s blush in the dim light of the car. “As serious as you could get I guess, ‘s hard to be in a relationship,” he said. Michael nodded,  _ tell me something I don’t know  _ he thought. 

“Luke? That okay with you?” Ashton asked. The blonde nodded his head and yawned, burying his face into the crook between Michael’s neck and shoulder. Ashton beamed at the two and gave Michael a small thumbs up. The eldest had known how much Luke’s fake relationship hurt Michael and was glad to see them (hopefully) being themselves again. 

The car pulled up to their gated off apartment and the four got out. Michael held onto Luke’s waist as they walked up to the front door. There were no cameras around this late at night, so Michael saw no point in not holding his boy. 

Their bags were by the front door (Ashton had forced them to back earlier in the day) and after saying goodnight to Calum and Ashton, Michael led Luke to their room and lay him on the bed. He untied Luke’s converse and carefully slipped them off his feet. He turned to grab pajama pants from their drawers but Luke whined and pulled his arm back. 

“Too hot,” he grumbled, unbuttoning his pants and shoving them off of his legs and onto the bed. He pulled his faded Weezer tshirt over his head and curled up into the pillows. Michael watched with a small smile on his face. He remembers an insecure 16-year-old Luke who would never even dare to take off his shirt, and Michael can’t contain his pride in thinking about how far Luke had come. 

He pulled down his jeans and threw them on the floor along with his t-shirt. He brushed his teeth before sliding into bed with Luke. “Love you,” he whispered into Luke’s ear, wrapped his arms around the blonde’s waist and pulling him on top of him.

“Love you too,” Luke mumbled back. “Can’t believe the album’s done,”

“Shut up Luke, we’ve got a 12 hour flight tomorrow to talk about that babe,” Michael mumbled back, turning off the side lamp and closing his eyes. 

\---

“Wow,” Michael breathed out, dropping his bags to the floor. He heard heavy footsteps behind him and then felt familiar arms wrap around his waist. 

“Beautiful innit,” Luke mumbled into his ear, leaning his head on Michael’s shoulder. The older boy turned his head and gave his boyfriend a lingering kiss. When Michael tried to pull away, Luke turned him around and used his hands to hold Michael’s face in place, deepening the kiss. Just as Luke was coaxing Michael’s mouth open with his tongue, there was a loud knocking on their door.

“Can’t even have two minutes alone,” Michael groaned as Luke kissed him softly one last time before going to open the door. Michael sat down on one of the chairs overlooking the captivating view of Bora Bora’s sunset. 

“Surprise!” At that voice Michael whipped around to see  _ Her  _ throw her arms around Luke. Why was  _ she  _ here? Once again, this was supposed to be a band-only trip. 

“Baby?” Luke said, certainly surprised but playing the part nonetheless, “What are you doing here?”

“Well, Bry told me she was coming and I have time off from work, so I thought I would surprise you!”

Michael’s heart plummeted. This was supposed to be  _ their  _ time together, away from  _ her.  _ She was clueless about Luke and Michael’s relationship, let alone the fact that Luke wasn’t straight. There wasn’t anyway they could sneak off now or just stay in and be themselves together anymore. She pulled away from Luke when she finally noticed Michael.

“Hey Mike! Hope you don’t mind me stealing your roomie,” she said to him before turning back to Luke. “Babe, I got us another room so we don’t have to all share. Good thing you haven’t unpacked yet, it’s just down the hall,”

Luke looked at Michael with apologetic eyes, but picked up his luggage nonetheless and left the room with a “I’ll text you later Mikes” and that was that. Michael stood in place for a few minutes frozen while everything caught up to him. How did he go from kissing his boyfriend in their room to him leaving with his fake girlfriend?

He took one look at the closed door that Luke had stepped out of only a few minutes and his eyes grew blurry. He pushed his own luggage off of the bed and crawled under the covers, letting his tears fall because why not? The beautiful view forgotten, Michael cried himself to sleep that night, eventually turning his phone off and tossing it across the room to ignore the countless texts coming in from Luke, Calum, and Ashton. He didn’t want to talk; he just wanted to be alone.

Michael woke up the next morning to more pounding on his door.  _ Who could it be now?  _ He thought bitterly before tossing the covers over his body and getting up. When he opened the door he was met with a worried-looking Calum and Ashton. 

Michael must have looked worse than he thought, but after his bandmates took one look at him, their angry faces melted away to ones filled with pity. Calum brought him into a hug and that’s all it took for Michael to start crying again. 

“C’mon Mike, let’s get back into bed. It’s ok,” Ashton said gently as he coaxed the two back to the bed. 

Calum had Michael in his arms under the covers and Ashton was sitting at the end of the bed with a hand on the back of Michael’s calf for comfort. The rhythmic section was silently communicating as Michael cried onto Calum’s Neck Deep shirt.

“Fuck Mike,” Ashton said from the end of the bed. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea Bry would tell her about this trip. It was supposed to be time for you guys to reconnect.”

Michael wanted to be mad at Ashton, he really did, but there was no point getting mad, she was already here and she wasn’t going to leave until they did. He shook his head and turned around to look at Ashton. 

“It wasn’t your fault,” he said with a shaky voice. “It was an accident,” Ashton took the opportunity to pull Michael into his arms, slowly shushing him and rubbing small circles on his back. He whispered comforting words into his ears as Calum looked completely defeated. 

“We don’t want you to be miserable this entire trip Mike,” Calum said. “The whole point of being here is to relax,” 

Michael wiped his eyes, “I know, I know. I promise I’m not gonna be depressed the whole time..it just hurts,” he whimpered. “We haven’t been spending anytime together and I just thought we would spend every second together here and...and…” 

“I know babe,” Calum said. “You’ll be okay, you two both will. I’m sure Luke’s just as torn up as you are right now,” 

Michael scoffed, “Yeah right, he already hangs out with her without management’s orders. I’m sure he’s fine,” 

Calum and Ashton knew, of course, about Luke hanging out with her on his own time, and didn’t know what to say back. 

“C’mon,” Ashton said, pulling Michael up. “Go shower and then we’ll walk around the resort, it’s absolutely breathtaking,” 

And so Michael did. He showered and perked up a bit when there was a chocolate croissant waiting on the bedside table with a note from Calum saying, “Meet us in the lobby :)” He got dressed quickly in a swimsuit and random t shirt before grabbing the pastry and going downstairs. With Calum and Ashton by his side, there was no way this vacation would be a bust. 

\---

At the end of it all, Michael had a good vacation even though he didn’t have Luke by his side the entire time. The blonde had come up to him at the end of the first day apologizing profusely, telling Michael he had no idea she was coming and would’ve told her not to if he had known. Michael shrugged it off and accepted that she was here because really, what else was there to do? The two texted everyday, and while sometimes it was only a simple goodnight or good morning text, it comforted Michael to know that the blonde was still thinking of him. 

He didn’t hate her, not at all. She was a really nice girl and all, but Michael just wanted Luke all to himself. He wanted to go down the waterslide with Luke, and hold hands with him while they hiked, but he understood that he couldn’t. So he went down the waterslide with Calum and Ashton always helped him on the hikes. He couldn’t ask for better friends.

When the time finally came to leave, Michael was ready. He had come into his trip exhausted, but now he was excited. Their world tour was coming up and the album was going to be released soon. Rehearsals started in just under a week and there was nothing more entertaining than watching his bandmates argue over what songs should make the setlist. 

Thankfully, Luke’s girl had bought plane tickets for an earlier flight, so Michael and Luke had the whole 12 hour flight back home to talk. Luke kept apologizing and even let a few tears fall himself, but Michael assured him that it was okay;  _ they were okay.  _ When they finally got back to their LA apartment, Michael and Luke went straight up to their room. It had been a good two weeks since they had slept in the same bed and Michael was desperate to fall asleep next to the lanky blonde. 

They threw their luggage onto the floor before jumping into the unmade bed. The two faced each other and smiled; legs and arms tangled together perfectly. “Let’s get dinner tomorrow,” Michael suggested. 

“Are you asking me on a date?” Luke fake gasped. Michael pinched his sides. “You’re such an idiot. Is that a yes?” 

The blonde snuggled further into Michael’s body. “I could never say no to you,” he mumbled, and Michael felt his heart speed up at the confession. He remembers asking Luke on a date for the first time when they were 16. He had been so nervous, but when Luke grabbed onto his hand and nodded softly with a blush, he made Michael the happiest person on Earth. He still considered himself the luckiest person on the Earth because not only is he living his dream, but he’s doing it with Luke and his best friends right next to him. 

Even though they were apart in Bora Bora, right now Michael feels like everything is perfect between them. 

\---

It was almost too perfect to be true. Once they all agreed to put Outer Space/Carry On and Broken Home on the playlist for their tour they realized that someone needed to play the piano. It couldn’t be Luke because he is the lead of that song and can’t be stuck behind a bulky instrument, and it couldn’t be Ashton or Calum because they each had to play their own respective instrument. So that left Michael, who had no idea how to play the piano. Michael agreed to play it however, once Luke, being the only one of the four who could play, agreed to teach him, and that meant that the two would have more time together and Luke’s ‘girlfriend’ couldn’t even interrupt this. 

Luke bought a piano and put it in their living room at home so they didn’t have to spend anymore time than necessary in the rehearsal room, which Michael was thankful for. He had never liked other people watching him learn something, it always made him feel insecure. For the first week or two, Michael and Luke stuck to a pretty intense practice schedule as tour was looming and Michael  _ had  _ to learn both Broken Home and Carry On before it started.

The older boy was learning quickly and Luke couldn’t have been prouder. Between full band rehearsals and obligations with  _ her _ , he and Michael only had about an hour or two a day to practice, but that was okay. Michael treasured any moment they had together. Everything was good until Luke started coming late to the practices, sputtering out excuses of being with  _ her,  _ and then he eventually started not coming back at all. 

Michael was so tired on the constant cycle with Luke. He was here, then he was gone; it wasn’t fair. Michael deserved more than a few hours with his boyfriend a day (not counting at night when Luke would still come home late). He had been sitting on the piano stool for 45 minutes now, with nothing from Luke about where he was or when he would be here. This was the third time this week Luke hadn’t shown up to practice and Michael was so done. 

He stood up from the stool and pushed it in, leaving the room in hopes of finding Calum. He could always talk to Calum. Michael found the Maori boy in his room with a book in his hand, and he lay down next to him. 

Calum could read Michael better than Michael could read himself, and he knew when something was wrong with his best friend. “You okay?” he asked gently, putting his book down and snuggling closer to Michael. 

“Luke keeps blowing me off and I’m pissed about it,” Michael said bluntly and nudged his head into Calum’s chest. 

“He’s got things to do Mike, you know management have been on his ass,” 

“He and the girl went on a ‘date’ yesterday, he told me yesterday that he didn’t have anything to do today. I didn’t even see him this morning when I woke up, he was already gone! And he was at lunch with her! I had to find out on twitter Cal!”

Calum didn’t know what to say. He hated that his best friend was hurting, but there wasn’t really anything he could say to Michael, or Luke for that matter, that would make any of this better. 

“I just want to be with him, but I don’t think that’s what he wants anymore,”

“Michael you’ve got to be kidding,” Calum said, urging Michael to look at him. “Luke  _ loves  _ you,”

“If he loved me, then why is he hanging out with her all the time? He isn’t even showing up for piano practice!” he sniffled.

Just as Calum was about to respond, there was a call of “Michael?” from downstairs. Michael groaned, of course Luke shows up now when he’s just started crying. He wipes his tears and Calum gives him a pat on the back before going downstairs. 

“Hey Mikes, sorry I’m…”

“Where were you?” Michael interrupts.

“I was having lunch with  _ her,  _ are you okay? You look angry,” Luke asked and Michael had had it. 

“Angry? Luke I’m pissed. You fucking  _ told  _ me you didn’t have to see her today, but you left anyway in the morning, and now you’re over an hour late for our piano lesson. This is the third time this week!” 

Luke’s eye widened. “I’m sorry Mikes, I didn’t realize so much time had passed…”

“I don’t care about the goddamn time Luke!” Michael shouted, startling the blonde. “You’re spending more time with this girl willingly than you are with your actual boyfriend,” He took a deep breath and then another thought came to his mind. “Are...are you cheating on me?” he whispered, terrified of Luke’s response. 

“What!? Michael, no! God no! What are you even talking about? Why would you think that?” 

“Do you not like me anymore?” All of Michael’s insecurities had just started coming out of his mouth and he didn’t think he could stop them. “Why don’t you spend anytime with me anymore?”

“I don’t want to spend anytime with you if you’re gonna accuse me of being a cheater! You’re being ridiculous Mike and you know it,”

“Am I?” Michael challenged. “Because you never talk to me anymore! We get an hour, maybe two, of piano a day, that is if you even show up! But after that you’re out the door again, with  _ her! _ ” 

“Maybe I’m spending more time with her because she actually makes me happy and doesn’t bitch at me all the time. Did you ever think about that?” Luke yelled angrily, and Michael froze. 

Luke turned around and grabbed his keys and wallet when Michael broke out of his trance. He couldn’t let Luke leave again. “Luke! Wait! I’m sorry!” He called desperately. “Please don’t leave can we just talk about this?”

He grabbed Luke’s arm, trying to stop the blonde, but Luke pushed him down roughly onto the carpeted floor. Guilt flashed through his eyes, but he walked out hastily and slammed the door behind him. Calum, who had heard the shouting and slam of the door, rushed downstairs to see Michael sitting on the floor staring at the front door.

“Michael?” Calum asked gently, cautiously making his way down the last of the stairs. His best friend looked back at him with teary eyes and it all added up in Calum’s mind. “Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. “Did he do this to you?” he asked. He already knew the answer but he didn’t want it to be true. 

Michael let out a watery whimper and nodded, hugging his knees to his chest and shaking a bit. “I think we may have just broken up,” he croaked out, a new wave of tears falling. Calum slowly helped him up to his feet and wrapped his arm around Michael. He led them back upstairs to his room and laid him down. Michael was babbling hysterically about Luke, and Calum did his best to shush him and comfort him. 

It wasn’t long before Michael fell asleep, he had worn himself out crying and Calum had always been a good pillow. The younger boy reached for his phone that was lying on the bedside table and sent a quick note to Ashton telling him to get home immediately. Calum snuck out of Michael’s grip when he heard the front door opening, assuming it was Ashton. He was less than pleased, however, when he saw Luke hanging his coat up on the rack. 

“What is your game Luke?” Calum asked angrily, startling the blonde who dropped his keys onto the floor. 

“Shit,” he muttered, picking them up and meeting Calum’s glare. “I’m sorry,” he squeaked. “I fucked up, but I need to talk to him,” 

Calum snorted, “As if, you’re not going anywhere near him. You’ve done enough already,” 

Ashton walked in at that moment, his upbeat whistling stopping when he saw the anger on Calum’s face and fear on Luke’s. “Everything okay here?” he asked. 

“Luke?” Calum prompted. “Wanna tell Ash what you did?” The blonde curled in on himself in shame and looked away. “No? Ok, fine I will. So instead of showing up for piano lessons with Mike today, Luke came back late and they got into a fight that ended with Luke  _ pushing  _ Mike onto the ground and storming off,” 

“You did  _ what _ ?!” Ashton shrieked, half in anger and half in disbelief. He was waiting for Michael to pop out from one of the closets and yell “Kidding!” but when it fell silent he realized that this was no joking matter. “Jesus Christ Luke, where’s Michael now?” 

“Sleeping in my bed,” Calum said bluntly. “Crying can be pretty exhausting,” Luke flinched at that. He knew he fucked up, that’s why he was here now to apologize, but it might be too late. 

“Can I just talk to him?” Luke pleaded, “I’m not going to hurt him,” 

“How would we know that’s true?” Calum sneered. Ashton quickly jumped in and stood between the two boys. He knew how protective Calum was over Michael and the last thing the band needed was their lead singer to have a broken nose. 

“Luke, just go to your room and calm down. When Michael wakes up we’ll ask him if he wants to see you and go from there,” Ashton ordered and Luke audibly sighed and put his head down. 

“When he wakes up, can you just tell him that I love him and that I’m sorry?” he asked Ashton; he knew better than to be asking Calum for any favors right now. Ashton nodded tightly, “Just go upstairs,”  

Luke took the cue and walked slowly up the stairs, leaving Calum and Ashton in the front room. “Is Michael okay?” The oldest asked.

All of Calum’s anger left his body as he deflated and muttered out “No. Luke has been fucking with his head and ditching him. Michael told me he accused him of cheating and Luke must not’ve like that,” 

Ashton pulled Calum into a hug. “They’ll sort this out, they always do,” he tried to say confidently, but truthfully he didn’t know if this was something the two could work through. This fight had been a long time coming, but none of them imagined that it would get violent. Michael may not want to be with Luke after this. 

“Michael’s been hurting long enough because of this whole girlfriend thing, the last thing he needed was a fight about it, especially with Luke not on his side,” Calum said into Ashton’s chest. “Do you…do you think Luke is cheating on Michael?” he asked quietly. 

Ashton didn’t hesitate to say “No, Luke loves Michael more than anything. He wouldn’t do that to him, he couldn’t,” He paused. “Let’s go upstairs, I wanna see Mike,” 

The two went upstairs and nearly jumped out of their skin when they saw Michael sitting up in bed awake. He was staring at the sheet in front of him, but looked up when he felt footsteps coming closer. 

“Hi Mike,” Ashton said cautiously. “You okay?” Michael shook his head and lay back down, throwing the sheets back over his body and inviting the rhythmic section in for a cuddle. Once they had all gotten situated, Ashton spoke again, even softer this time. “Luke told us to tell you he’s sorry and he loves you,”

Michael huffed, “Yeah, then where is he now?” 

“In your room, we told him he’s not seeing you until you want to see him,” Calum said, rubbing small circles on Michael’s back. “He came home not long after you fell asleep, he knew he fucked up,”

The three lay in silence; Michael didn’t know what to say. He just wanted to go back to sleep and never wake up. That sounded like a good plan to him. Just as he was dozing off, he heard a loud crash from the room over, followed by an even louder “Fuck!” from a familiar voice. Michael sat up and got out of bed. Calum and Ashton’s eyes watched him worriedly, but didn’t say anything as he left the room and walked to where the noise came from. 

When he pushed the door open, he didn’t expect to see a dent in the wall and a lamp on the floor, and he definitely didn’t expect to see Luke sitting on the bed holding his head in his hands and sniffling. 

“Luke?” Michael pushed the door open a little wider and saw Luke’s head shoot up from his hands. The blonde stumbled standing up and reached his hand out towards the faux redhead. Michael hesitated, and eventually shook his head and reached down to pick up the now-broken lamp. When he looked back at Luke, the blonde had a horrified look on his face; when he realized his arm was still reaching for Michael, he pulled it back and rubbed the back of his neck. 

“I’m so sorry Mike,” his voice cracked, and when Michael didn’t say anything back he kept talking. “Not just for this afternoon, but I’ve been a really shitty boyfriend and even friend to you. I got too caught up in this fake relationship because I don’t want management to get even madder at us, but I completely disregarded your feelings while doing that,”

“You pushed me,” Michael said softly while looking at his feet. He knew that if he looked at Luke he would immediately forgive him, but they needed to talk about this. 

“I know baby, I know and I can’t even begin to say how sorry I am. I have no excuse for that other than the fact that I was being a complete jerk. I would never lay a hand on you Michael, that’s not me, I’m not that guy,” Luke pleaded sadly. “Please, I’d rather have you think of me as a cheater than someone who hits their boyfriend,”

“You said she makes you happier than I do,”

Michael could hear Luke inhale sharply. “That was a lie. Nothing in the whole world makes me happier than you do Mike. I don’t..fuck I don’t even know why I would say that- just seeing you makes my day 10 times better. Sure, she’s good company, but that’s all she is. She means nothing to me compared to you Mike. You make me so, so happy, the happiest guy on Earth, and I’m sorry I made you think otherwise,” 

“I just don’t know what to do,” Michael said. He walked past Luke and pulled the covers back and got into bed. He curled into the sheets, taking in the scent of Luke’s cologne and shampoo. The blonde quickly followed, getting in on his side of the bed and laying a fair distance from Michael. Michael turned around and wiggled his way closer to Luke, who, when he knew it was okay to, immediately wrapped his arms around Michael and pulled him close to his chest. “It’s a cycle Luke, and I can’t do it anymore. I know you have to go out with her, but I just want to be out with you,”

“I know babe,” Luke kissed the top of his head. “I want nothing more than that. I want to take you out and not have to worry about anyone seeing me hold your hand, but they don’t want that,”  _ They.  _ Their management still wouldn’t allow them to come out, despite the fact that they had been together since the band first started almost five years ago. Luke continued, “We’ll talk to them, with Calum and Ashton. If we can’t convince them to let us come out, then maybe we can get them to take away the girlfriend act. I’m far too gone for you to lose you Clifford,”

“You think they would do that?” Michael asked in a small, yet hopeful voice. 

“If not then I’ll just tweet everyone the truth. It’s time they stopped trying to control our relationship, I love you and that’s all that matters,” 

“That’s all that matters? It doesn’t matter that I love you back?” Michael teased and Luke’s arms tightened around his waist. 

“I didn’t know if I could say that after what I did, what I said earlier,” Luke said, his voice trailing off. 

“You weren’t in a good mindset Lu, don’t beat yourself, or this room, up for that. I shouldn’t have accused you of cheating, I know you would never do that, I’m sorry,” Michael apologized.

“You don’t need to apologize for anything,” Luke said. “It’s gonna be okay, we’re gonna fight for this, for us. We were young when they made us hide it, but we’re not doing that anymore. You’re mine and I’m yours and I’ll be damned if the whole world doesn’t know that,”

Michael sighed happily, “I love you,” 

Luke pinched his sides and laughed as Michael let out a yelp and dug his short fingernails into the blonde’s shoulders. “I love you too,” 

And yeah, they were gonna figure it out eventually, they always do. 


End file.
